Chimere Omeze’s worldie punctuates his chaotic day in SU’s win over Colgate
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HAMILTON, N.Y. — It was anything but a normal Tuesday for Chimere Omeze.
A couple things were normal, as he started like his last five games. As unordinary as it seems, Omeze constantly played out of his defensive position, roaming the right wing like he has all season.
But once play commenced, it’d be easy to decipher it from any other. Omeze’s offensive usage was far greater than any other game this season. One moment, the junior’s on a five-player backline at right back. A couple minutes later, he’s up top, and he was there to stay.
But half an hour earlier, he was on the ground tugging his leg, while the game paused for him. His teammates held their breath.
Omeze returned, and there was a bounce — a bounce he hadn’t seen all season and had to take. He attacked the rattling ball with the outside of his foot, banked the crossbar and ran backward in jubilation.
After playing countless positions and getting injured, Omeze revitalized his day with a worldie go-ahead goal in the 48th minute to propel Syracuse (5-3-0, 0-2-0 Atlantic Coast) to a 3-0 shutout at Colgate (1-5-2, 0-1-0 Patriot). Through one half, Omeze led the Orange with two shots and made his third count with a bar-down tally, his first this season. It epitomized a day when the defender was used more offensively than usual.
“As goals go in, as coaches, you’re thinking we don’t watch the game as fans,” Syracuse head coach Ian McIntyre said postgame. “I’ll enjoy that moment watching it back and appreciate that for the moment of quality.”
It’d be a shame if he didn’t enjoy it on the bus ride back. Nearly two years ago, McIntyre saw Omeze’s “high ceiling.” It led to moments like Tuesday’s worldie or his four-goal 2025 campaign. It also led to responsibilities like moving in every direction on the right sideline for 78 minutes.
Syracuse tabs itself a 3-5-2 team formation-wise, but if you asked McIntyre postgame, he’d call it a 3-4-3. There was no way to quantify what position Omeze played, but the unpredictability clearly threatened Colgate, which tightened with five defenders back in the game’s opening minute.
Colgate began moving its players higher, and Omeze was Syracuse’s furthest man back in the second minute, catalyzing a turnover. Three minutes later, he was on its last line of defense. There were combinations featuring Omeze alongside several out-of-position players like midfielders Ivan Irinimbabazi and Kelvin Da Costa. But then, Omeze began cheating up.
“We got a little bit more pressure higher up the field, and that helped us trying to move the ball,” McIntyre said.
That’s because in the seventh minute, Omeze had the game’s first shot. Kristjan Fortier soared a deep ball down the right sideline for Omeze to cleanly trap. To anyone just tuning into the game, you’d think the junior was a striker. He cut inside and flicked the ball out of bounds on the goal’s netting.
“(Chimere) would be the first to tell you that he’s probably had a couple of chances this year,” McIntyre said.
A similar tale followed in the 17th minute, when Landon Darko lofted a sky-arching cross into the box, which Omeze headed onto goal. However, Raiders goalie Gavin Vichengrad stumped him.
But then everything seemed to collapse in the 32nd minute. Omeze fell to the ground after Julian Di Lucia stepped on his foot. There he lay in the box next to SU goalie Juan Martinez-Bastidas, who was visibly worried for the defender as multiple trainers attended to him.
“I’m sure we’ll have some tired bodies,” McIntyre said of the scare.
So, Omeze returned. At first, he retreated to defense like his position says he should. But as the second half started, Omeze began creeping up. Now he’s past the midfield stripe in line with the midfield. Suddenly, he’s on the right wing.
The Orange win a corner kick as the 48th minute approaches. The ball begins sailing out of bounds. Irinimbabazi chases it down and bicycles the ball into play. There’s the aforementioned bounce. Omeze takes a whack and bars it down to give Syracuse the lead.
“A little bit of a moment of brilliance from Chimere,” McIntyre said. “Sometimes, you need a little bit of magic, and we had that with Chimere.”
The magic didn’t run out so early that half. In the 63rd minute, the Brampton, Ontario, native was tripped up in the box by Connor Cates. He got in the head of Colgate fans, who taunted Omeze’s name moments after.
Seventy-eight minutes playing on a leg injury is strenuous. So with under 10 minutes remaining and the Orange up 2-0, McIntyre, holding his life-sized whiteboard on the sideline, told Omeze his day was done.
He reconvened on the bench with Darko, stretching on the ground. After the game, Omeze walked toward the bleachers with his cleats untied. He walked into the visiting team locker room with flip-flops, signaling his mentally taxing day was finished.
“He’s got that quality,” McIntyre said. “He is a player that plays a number of different positions for us. He changed the game.”
